CLICK TO LISTEN TO JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH SUPT. COBY FLETCHER
When Holy Name Catholic School opens a new high school in 2021, what will that mean for the relationship between Holy Name and the Escanaba Public Schools?
Escanaba Superintendent Coby Fletcher tells the Radio Results Network that it will remain a cordial relationship. But once Holy Name High School opens, some programs that Holy Name students currently participate in at Escanaba will not be open to those students anymore. That includes band, choir, orchestra, and athletics.
“If we don’t have any sort of reasonable assurance that they’re going to come to us as high school kids, there’s really not a reason for me to incentivize kids to stay at Holy Name, and then pick and choose (programs) at Escanaba,” Fletcher told RRN News. “If you want the Escanaba program, if Holy Name opens a high school, then you need to come to Escanaba to get it.”
Fletcher says they currently allow Holy Name kids to take part in these programs as middle schoolers because they are likely to come to Escanaba as high schoolers.
“We maintain good relationships, but we still want to attract each others students,” Fletcher said. “When Holy Name opens up a high school, they’re going to become another competitor.”
With a new Holy Name High School, that changes. He says that some things that are required by law and comes with federal dollars….like busing within district boundaries…would continue.
Holy Name plans to open a high school in 2021, after being a K-through-8 school since the last high school closed in the 1970’s.
